How to Deal with Blog Burps

Last week, I did exactly what I warned in my last post not to do – I didn’t post at my regular times, and I didn’t let anyone know what was going on. Excuse me for my blog “burp.”

What should I have done when I was hit with that perfect storm of a huge workload and all my reserve posts depleted?

Well, if I was smart [insert snide comment here], I would have reposted something or – even better – asked someone to guest post.

I’m not exactly sure what my hang-up is with reposting. Part of it is because I think any good post would already be seen by lots of people. Unfortunately, this isn’t always true.

I think the biggest hurdle for me to repost is that I don’t know the proper etiquette. I usually contact the original blogger to ask permission and then, after I’ve reposted, send the author a link.

This isn’t exactly a labor-saving process. Is it okay to repost someone’s work without asking or letting them know?

Tapping into guest posts would be easier for me since I have a lot of writer friends who just love to write. They are even in sync with my writing interests. (Seriously, hour-long discussions about punctuation or grammar require a special sort of friendship.) They’re also skilled enough so there’s a minimum amount of editing. (I’m an editor; I edit everyone!)

My problem is that I have to ask, and I have to plan ahead. I need to do a better job of using those down times to set things up for when I have to weather those perfect work storms.